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Integrity of Championship not compromised by Sligo's withdrawal | GAA's Feargal McGill

The GAA's head of games administration Feargal McGill insists that the integrity of this year's A...
Will O'Callaghan
Will O'Callaghan

15.52 5 Nov 2020


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Integrity of Championship not...

Integrity of Championship not compromised by Sligo's withdrawal | GAA's Feargal McGill

Will O'Callaghan
Will O'Callaghan

15.52 5 Nov 2020


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The GAA's head of games administration Feargal McGill insists that the integrity of this year's All-Ireland Football Championship has not been compromised by Sligo's withdrawal.

A number of positive COVID-19 in the Yeats County's panel forced them to hand a walkover to Galway in the Connacht semi-finals, which sees them exit the Championship without having kicked a ball.

"I don’t think there’s any question about the integrity of the championship,” McGill said of the situation.

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“You could be smart and say it was always likely that Galway were going to beat Sligo anyway, they would have been hot favourites for that game, but I don’t think it affects the integrity of the championship, no.

"It was well flagged that this was going to be a possibility. We’re not operating in normal times.”

Two months ago McGill had expressed his belief that it was unlikely that a county will be forced to withdraw due to being unable to fulfil a fixture but he says a lot has changed since.

“I’m not surprised. I’m disappointed. When I would have spoken originally at that conference, none of us knew what the future held. We didn’t know we were going to be in a situation where there would be 1,000 cases a day.

“I think I also said that I thought it was unlikely that we would be playing at all in Level 5. I didn’t think that we’d be permitted to play in Level 5.

"It turned out that we were permitted to play so that was a changing factor. If I’d know we were going to be playing in Level 5 I would have given a different answer at the time but so be it.”


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